Brian Cudnik
Coordinator

This program is designed to standardize and
coordinate amateur observations of meteoroid impacts on the Moon. This field
has exciting possibilities but only if the observations are done in a uniform
manner and pooled to look for confirmations of positive observations. Anyone
interested in participating should contact the Coordinator above for further
information. The Coordinator maintains an "Impact"
e-mailing list of regular participants, e-mail him if you would like
to be added to the list. Click here to read the full mission statement.

Check this out for the latest images
and news on Lunar Meteor Observations!

Monthly
Briefings and Upcoming Opportunities to Observe Lunar Meteors

Due to the lack of activity at the moment I plan to change
the frequency at which this page is updated. I will start a new, quarterly
format which will provide, at a glance, the observing schedule along with any
meteor showers active during the observing windows. In general the observations
fall into three groups: Evening, from three days after New Moon (NM) to two
days after First Quarter (FQ); Morning, from two days prior to Last Quarter
(LQ) to three days prior to New Moon (NM); and significant shower, when the
moon is favorably placed (usually during these two intervals) during annual
showers that have an earthly ZHR of 20 or greater. I will update mainly on
occurrences when the moon is favorably placed during such showers, but will
also place the information on specific dates of monthly observing “at a glance”
similar to the format below. We have already passed the evening part of the
current phase cycle campaign, and for the remainder of the year here is what is
planned …

·Interval: 21-27 February (NM = 18 Feb; FQ = 25
Feb), evening.

·Interval: 23-29 March (NM = 20 Mar; FQ = 27
Mar), evening.

This is the time of year where meteor showers are not very
active. The two listed above are Southern Hemisphere trickles that each have a
ZHR of 6. The Antihelion Source is active during March and April but only has a
peak ZHR of 4. Check back often for any updates on activity related to these
last two major showers of the year.

Observations in Support of the
LADEE Mission

Although the LADEE mission is now history (it crash-landed
on the far side of the moon on April 17, 2014), observations of lunar meteors
are still needed. Anyone interested in making observations at any time during
these intervals should contact me at the above e-mail address to inform me of
your attempts and/or post on the lunar-impact list server. If you need
assistance with your tapes do not hesitate to let one of us know, either myself
or someone on the lunar-impacts list server group.

The complete
observing plan for lunar meteors for 2014 can be obtainedhere.

The mirror site that complements
this site is online and will display images obtained by observers as soon as
they are received, to give near-real time updates of observers’ results. Also
included will be any information provided by the observer such as date, time,
location, etc. The mirror is part of the “Cosmic Corner” website athttp://www.pvamu.edu/physics/cosmic-corner/.

There is still need for observations during the
time frame of the mission (November 28, 2013 through April 16, 2014) so if you
were observing during this time and have something to contribute, you are more
than welcome to send it my way.

Brian Day of NASA-Ames Research Center wrote:
“The Lunar Meteoroid Impacts and the LADEE mission online workshop was held on
Dec 5, 2013. Presenters included RickElphic(LADEE
Project Scientist), BrianCudnik(Coordinator of the ALPO Lunar
Meteoritic Impact Search, Author of “Lunar Meteoroid Impacts and How to Observe
Them), Rob Suggs (NASA Meteoroid Environment Office), GeorgeVarros(pioneering observer of lunar
meteoroid impacts and author of “Nudger” lunar auto-guider software), and
PeterGural(author ofLunarScanimpact detection software). Because of
our international audience, the workshop was recorded and archived for
convenient viewing. You can view the workshop athttp://connect.arc.nasa.gov/p4zpsnm6weh/.”

I highly recommend visiting this site and
watching the entire conference. Even though the mission has ended, there are
plenty of resources to help one get oriented to the observations of lunar
meteors. More information about the LADEE mission itself can be obtained fromhttp://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LADEE/main/.

One of the main objectives for ground-based
observations is to correlate the occurrence of impact events with changes in
the dust concentration as measured by LADEE. This, combined with careful
measurements of the maximum intensity of the flash, its light curve, and
knowing the impact velocity of the meteoroid, will enable us to get an estimate
of the luminous efficiency (how much impact energy goes into making the optical
flash) of the impact as well as a rough estimate of the mass of the meteoroid.

Other News and Developments

Brightest Lunar Meteor Yet
Observed

Dr. Madiedo of the
University of Huelva in Spain reported a bright meteor flash caused by a space
rock impacting the Moon’s surface at an estimated 37,900 mph (61,000 km/h),
blasting out a new crater roughly 131 feet (40 meters) wide. This impact was
observed by a pair of telescopes that are part of the MIDAS (Moon Impacts
Detection and Analysis System) observatory, at 8:07UT on September 11, 2013.
The event occurred in Mare Nubium. The meteoroid weighed in at an estimated 880
lbs. (400 kg) and measured between 2.0 and 4.5 feet (0.6 and 1.4 meters) in
diameter. More information about this event can be found at
http://www.space.com/24789-moon-meteorite-impact-brightest-lunar-explosion.html.

Some Recent Observations of
Lunar Meteor Phenomena

I will,
at the start of each observing cycle, add reports from the prior cycle to this
website. I eventually plan to compile the below into a table of impact events,
in catalog format, and add this to the growing catalog of lunar meteoroid
observations. Images can be viewed at the mirror site linked above.

CANDIDATE
IMPACT EVENT FROM FEBRUARY 2014

Bill Porter reported a
recording of a possible impact candidate from about 12:30 UTC on Feb 23.
Location was in the eastern half of Lacus Somniorum, in the general area of
Hall Y1 dome and Hall K crater. George Varros reports: “Using the Virtual Moon
Atlas, the coordinates are close to LONG 36.724 LAT 34.105 - in the vicinity of
the Hall crater.” (An image will be posted to the CosmicCorner mirror site
sometime this week, or before March 6th). The impact appeared quite
faint according to Mr. Porter, who observed this from California, USA. A
comparison star was videotaped a few minutes later ( HIP 82951A, mag 6.55). The
“jury is out” on this one since it shows a gradual rise in brightness, a peak,
then a gradual fall, which is not consistent with a typical impact event.

CANDIDATE
IMPACT EVENT FROM DECEMBER 2013 and JANUARY 2014

Two candidates from Jan 5:
I don’t know what to make of them. They are both single video field events and are
dim but don’t look like cosmic rays because of their nice shape and brightness
centroids. They have a similar look, are dim and very short, just like the one
from Jan 4.(I’m rescanning everything
using Lunarscan 1.5 after experiencing anomalies or unexpected results.)

Jan 5, 2014 00:12:26Lat 15.321SLon 25.489E inside crater Cyrillus F

Jan 5, 2014 00:31:35Lat 15.5NLon 20.6E

001226_candidate
003135_candidate

[Images courtesy of George
Varros]

——————————————————————–

This is a detection by
Marco Iten and Stefano Sposetti of a probable impact event on the moon. These
are members of the Swiss-Italian team of lunar observers.

———-

Date: 2014 Jan 7

UT Time: 18:19:31.0

Airmass: 1.39

Lunar coordinates: 15.5°
West, 19.5° North (Mare Imbrium)

Duration: 20 ms

Brightness: -

Presence of artificial
satellites along the line-of-view: none in a 3deg diameter

Iten’s instrument: 125mm
refractor with WAT902H2 Ultimate

Sposetti’s instrument:
280mm reflector with WAT902H2 Ultimate

Images courtesy of (left)
M. Iten and (right) S. Sposetti.

2014_01_07_181931_iten
2014_01_07_181931_sposetti

——————————————————————–

Lunar meteor observer
George Varros reports the following impact candidate:

I found a single video
field event that may or may not be an impact. It occurred on Jan 4, 2014, at
23:49:37 UT, just south of Gambart B atLat 0.979 Long -11.56I uploaded
and posted an image and a map, in a new folder labeled “01/04/2014 candidate”.

Although it’s only one
video field, the event does not have the visual appearance of a cosmic ray in
that it has a brighter center and is in a matrix of 3×3 pixels – it looks
somewhat stellar.

It was not detected by
Lunarscan probably because the event is only seen in the even video field – the
odd field was blank along with the odd field of the next frame. The picture is
dark because I probably have my gain set too low.

I
received the following reports (December 7th and 8th)
from the Swiss-Italian Lunar Observation group. Within a day (or two or less)
of the date of this notice, images related to this report will be made
available on the mirror site. Stefano SposettiI reported the following:

“Saturday,
Dec 7, Marco
Iten, Raffello Lena, Andrea Manna and I, made some video recordings of the
crescent Moon. We got good, but also poor sky conditions. 2 of us, Marco Iten
and I, detected independently and simultaneously a small flash on the Moon. The
image of Marco Iten shows a very nice bright point of light, lasting about 4
fields (ie. 80 ms). My image is a lot blurred because of wind and strong
turbulence, the flash is washed out but clearly visible at the same instant and
in the same lunar region. The airmass at the moment of the detection was 3.9.
No artificial satellites were along the line-of sight inside a 3deg diameter
centered on the Moon coordinates. We performed no photometry of the flash. To
note that Marco Iten noticed the flash visually in real time, while looking at
the laptop screen.

In
summary:

----------

Date:
2013 Dec 7

UT Time:
19:31:06.6

Airmass:
3.9

Lunar
coordinates: 11° West, 14° South (Mare Nubium)

Duration:
80 ms

Luminosity:
-

Iten's
instrument: 125mm refractor with WAT902H2 Ultimate

Sposetti's
instrument: 150mm refractor with WAT902H2 Ultimate

----------

Marco Iten, Raffello Lena,
Andrea Manna and I made some video recordings of the crescent Moon in the first
half of December 2013.

“December 8th, 2 of us,
Marco Iten and Stefano Sposetti, detected independently and simultaneously a
small flash on the Moon. The image of Marco Iten shows a somewhat bright point
of light, lasting about 2 fields (ie. 40 ms). The flash of light in the
Sposetti's image is less evident.

“The airmass at the moment
of the detection was 2.19.

“The geostationary
satellite INTELSAT 907 was at 66arcmin from the Moon centre at the moment of
the detection, ie. outside the field of view. No other satellites were in a
3degree diameter circle centered on the Moon coordinates.

“We performed no
photometry of the flash.

In
summary:

----------

Date:
2013 Dec 8

UT Time:
19:15:58.6

Airmass:
2.19

Lunar
coordinates: 18° West, 50° South (Longomontanus crater border)

Duration:
40 ms

Luminosity:
-

Iten's
instrument: 125mm refractor with WAT902H2 Ultimate

Sposetti's
instrument: 150mm refractor with WAT902H2 Ultimate”

In
addition to these reports, the NASA-MSFC Meteoroid Environment Office reported,
during the “Workshop Without Walls” web-based meeting last week of a faint
impact candidate on the western (Celestial west) limb of the moon, imaged at 11:07:24.3 on 29
November 2013. Someone
else in e-mail communication mentioned this as being one of three candidates
observed that morning. I do not have an image to go with this report but one
can see it on the online workshop.

Small Meteoroid Impact
Observed in Europe on 1 August 2013

I received the following
report from Raffaello Lena of GLR-Italy. He writes: “On August 1, 2013 at
02:21:55.7 UT, a small meteoroid has likely impacted the Moon' s surface. The
kinetic energy transformed by the impact into thermal energy also caused a short
a flash of light that was detected by telescopes of R. Lena, A. Manna and S.
Sposetti. The simultaneity of the flash and the same position on the lunar
surface indicates it is an impact. The event described above has been observed
by Raffaello Lena (GLR group, Rome Italy) with a refractor 130 mm and with a
video camera Mintron. The flash was also detected by Andrea Manna from Cugnasco
(Switzerlnd) with a Schmidt Cassegrain 200 mm and a camera watec 120N+. Stefano
Sposetti (Gnosca, Switzerland) detected the flash using two telescopes:
Refractor 150 mm and SC C11” equipped with watec 902H2 cameras.

Two observatories in
Switzerland are at a distance of 10.0 km. The observatory in Italy (Rome) is at
a very long distance of 558 km from Gnosca (Switzerland). Time synchronicity of
the various files is assured by using a GPS time inserters (KIWI-OSD) and an
Atomic Clock Synchronization protocol. The meteoroidal lunar impact detected on
August, 1, 2013 at 02:21:55.7 UT was simultaneously recorded by four independent
video recordings. The duration of the flash correspond to 0.08s and reached a
peak brightness of 8.3 ± 0.7 mag. The selenographic coordinates of the lunar
impact flash are determined to 73° ± 4° E and 27° ± 3° N, near the crater
Seneca C. The examined impact flash probably corresponds to a
α-Capricornids shower exhibiting favourable impact geometry on the impact
date. Enclosed an image of the detected lunar impact. A report of the observing
session (written by Sposetti, Manna and I) is published in Selenology Today 33,
which can be accessed with the following link:

NASA
has observed the largest impact yet detected on the moon. At 3:50:55UT on
March 17, 2013, a flash peaking near magnitude 4.0 was observed at lunar
latitude 20.6N, longitude 23.8W. The explosion produced was the equivalent of
that produced by 5 tons of TNT. The crater generated by this explosion is
estimated to be approximately 20 feet (6 meters) in diameter and was produced
by a beach-ball sized meteoroid (about 35-cm diameter) impacting at 57,000
mph (26 km/sec), that possibly is part of a little known meteor shower called
the eta Virginids. More information about this extraordinary event can be
obtained at http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2013/16may_lunarimpact/.

General Astronomy Free e-Book
Available for Download

My
general interest visual astronomy book (revised and corrected) entitled “The Art and Science of Visual
Astronomy”, is available for free
download. This is where I share my fascination with the aesthetic, visual side
of astronomy and include information on some of the best objects that amateur
astronomers look at on a regular basis. This is meant to instill interest in
visual astronomy as well as keep beginning astronomers hooked and interested in
observing. I cover a wide range, from the natural beauty of the Earth and
daytime sky, to the uniqueness of deep sky objects such as galaxies. A unique
feature of this free e-book are the tables of “equivalent distances” to objects
of various types (both within the local solar system and beyond), that is how
close one would be to a given object of interest to get a naked eye view that matches
what one sees through the eyepiece. Suggestions are always welcome for
improvement. The e-book can be downloaded from here. Please be aware that, because of all the pretty pictures,
it may take a few minutes to download completely. Once it is downloaded, you
can save a copy to your local machine.

A Likely Impact from a
Sporadic Meteoroid (2011)

The GLR (Geologic-Lunar Research) group in Italy reported a very likely lunar
meteoroid impact candidate on 11 February 2011 at 20:36:58.355UT. The obsevers
were Stefano Sposetti and March Iten. Stefano Sposetti reports, “Marco Iten and
me detected a probable impact flash on the Moon, simultaneously, from our two
observatories, located 16km apart. It lasted about 4 fields (i.e. 0.08s) in one
video file; a bit less in the other video file. No artificial satellites were
in a 2-deg field of view at the moment of the detection and the two flashes in
the two video files are located at the same lunar feature.” Since impact was
observed with two telescopes separated by 16km (below the arbitrary 30km
threshold that we use to determine uniqueness) and it has been verified that no
artificial satellites were in the vicinity of the moon at the time of the
impact, this can be considered a confirmed event. More information, including
analysis, can be found at this website http://digidownload.libero.it/glrgroup/st22web.htm.

Jovian
Meteors and Resources for Observers

Jovian Meteor #3

On
September 10, 2012, a Jovian meteor was observed by a visual observer in
Minnesota and confirmed by video in Texas. It was a two-second long, sixth
magnitude meteor that happened in Jupiter’s atmosphere. It is likely that the
object mostly burnt up in the atmosphere, as observations of the site on
subsequent rotations have yielded no markings. This event serves as a reminder
that Jupiter provides a potential wealth of information in the area of meteoritics
and the interactions between colliding planetary bodies. The story can be read
at http://www.spaceweather.com/ (Select
September 12 2012 under “Archives” if you do not see a link to the story
anymore). A real-time video of the impact event can be viewed at http://www.flickr.com/photos/19299984@N08/7976507568. And check out the article published just one day before
that declares “Fireballs Light Up Jupiter” at http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2010/09sep_jovianfireballs/.

Jovian Meteor #1, and #2

Another Jovian
meteor was videotaped as it happened at 18:22UT on 20 August 2010. The event
was recorded independently by two observers in Japan:Masayuki Tachikawa of Kumamoto city was first
to report the event, and Tokyo amateur astronomer Aoki Kazuo made the confirming
recording some 800 km away. More information on this event, including pictures
and video, can be seen on the August 23, 2010 page of www.spaceweather.com. Sky & Telescope also has a story on this which can be
read at http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/home/101264994.html.

This
makes the second confirmed meteor observation on Jupiter in 2-1/2 months, with
the first being on June 3rd. The June 3 and 4 (2010) page of www.spaceweather.com has more information, including an image and a video of this
extraterrestrial meteor, which occurred at 20:31 UT on June 3rd. You
can also go to the news section of Astronomy Magazine’s website (http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=ss&id=26, scroll to the archives near the bottom of the page, select June
2010 and look for the link…) to get the news story. Amateur astronomers
Christopher Go (the Philippines)
and Anthony Wesley (Australia)
simultaneously observed this event, making it the first ground-based confirmed
observation of an actual impact event on another world beside the moon (to my
knowledge). The impactor must have been a rather large object to have produced
such a bright flash of light as seen from a half billion miles away.

The first
meteor did not produce any dark markings, and it is unlikely that this one will
do so as well. Both appear to be atmospheric fireballs that disintegrated
before reaching the clouds.

This
reinforces my suggestion (which is now being considered by others) to begin a
serious project of continuously monitoring of Jupiter for impact events. This
would need to be done at high powers, enough for 1 arc-second (or better)
resolution. A setup similar to what is used in lunar meteor or asteroid
occultation work, but with larger telescopes (at least 10-inch) and less
sensitive cameras (since Jupiter is bright) would do the trick, and could
reveal the true rate of such impacts with implications for Earth and the impact
probability here.

Observer Resource: Lunar Meteoroid Impacts and How to Observe
Them

The book
is now available for purchase at bookstores as well as online. One can go to
Springer’s website and find more information about the book, at http://www.springer.com/astronomy/book/978-1-4419-0323-5. One can also go to Amazon.com and get it for as little as $17.56
(used) off the publisher price; the website is (it looks truncated so if this
link does not work, simply go to www. amazon.com and type in the title of the
book in the search field, and it will come up)…

A “Quick Start” guide to
LunarScan can be obtained by clicking here or here.

In order to better qualify the probability of an observation being
genuinely impact in nature, we have adopted a definitive classification
scheme. The descriptors are given below

Confirmed
Observation:
Those impacts observed by at least two independent observers separated by
at least 50 km (30 mi) within 2 degrees of latitude and longitude on the
moon and 2 seconds of time (99% confidence).

Tentatively
Confirmed Observation: Those impacts observed by at least two independent
observers separated by less than 50 km (30 mi) within 5 degrees of
longitude and 5 seconds of time (95% confidence).

Probable: Those impacts
observed by a single observer having the characteristics of an impact
observation--appearing on two or more video frames, a measurable
point-spread-function (i.e. appearing similar to a star), and/or
confidence at least 80%.

Candidate: Any impact
observation submitted by a single observer with a confidence of at least
50%.

With these criteria in place, we
can better group observations in terms of quality and estimate the likelihood of
the observation being that of an actual impact event. It is very possible
that a candidate could be elevated to the status of "confirmed" with
the corroborative observation of a second independent observer, as stated in
the qualifications above.

Lunar Impact Plots

Included are the plots made for
meteor showers with ZHR's greater than 10 that occur when the Moon is favorably
placed for the observation of impact flashes from Earth. In addition to
the plots for 2005 and 2006, plots for 1999 to 2004 are also included for
archival purposes. Click on the following link for impact plots showing
when the Moon will be favorably placed to observe possible lunar meteor impacts
on its surface from annual meteor showers. Only when at least some of the
dark side of the Moon is presented to the Earth, and the terrestrial ZHR of the
shower exceeds 15, is the plot for that particular shower (terrestrial) maximum
provided. Many thanks to Peter Gural of Science Applications
International Corporation for providing these impact plots. Also note that the
LunarScan program is capable of producing lunar impact plots for any shower and
any lunar phase; interested parties are encouraged to refer to the
documentation that goes with the program for more information.